John's Team

Tyrant - Slaking

Vordt - Ursaluna

Smough - Snorlax

Klee - Blissey

Port - Mantine

Zephyr - Pidgeot

Klaus - Wyrdeer

Luna - Clefable

Pixel - Porygon-Z

Euphie - Sylveon

Ornstein - Obstagoon

Wraith - H-Zoroark

Winston - Lickilicky (Shiny)

The New Normal – 13-3 – A Weird Discovery

I stared blankly at the Dudunsparce, who hadn't even noticed my attention on it as it continued to spin in my uncle's farm.

Now that I was actually seeing it in person, it looked really similar to a Dunsparce, but I double checked to make sure that it had an extra segment that a Dunsparce shouldn't have. Furthermore, it was also twice the length of what a Dunsparce should be, according to the Pokédex.

I must have been standing there for quite a while, because my uncle ended up approaching me.

"Something curious that you see?" He asked me, before chuckling as he realised I was staring at Dudunsparce, "Ah yes. This Dunsparce has been on the farm for quite some time. Never knew what was up with it, but it seemed to enjoy itself and didn't cause any harm, so I just left it there. I check up on it from time to time to see if it's run off, but it's always bene here."

"How long has it been here for?" I questioned.

He shrugged, "No clue. Probably over a year? Maybe more? Why?"

"Because…because it's too long." I said, struggling to explain the difference between a Dunsparce and a Dudunsparce, "Dunsparce shouldn't be this long. It's…unusual."

"Surely it's just a sign of good and healthy growth." My uncle suggested, "It can't be that unusual to see. Just like how your Slaking and Lance's Dragonite are larger than your average. Nothing weird about it."

"Yes, but…this Dunsparce has an extra segment." I pointed out, "That's not usual…If you don't mind, I'd like to bring it to one of my scientist friends so they can a get a better look at this. Maybe we'll find out something cool."

Honestly, if it wasn't for the use of scanners and other machinery, I bet it would be very difficult to convince the average person that Dudunsparce was even an evolution for Dunsparce, considering just how similar they looked. Very rarely were there ever any evolutions that looked so similar to their pre-evolved counterparts.

So my plan was to bring this to Professor Oak and get Dudunsparce verified as a Dunsparce evolution. It wasn't really to get another achievement under my belt, though it wouldn't do any harm, but because I felt that having a Dudunsparce just hanging around the farm like this was a little bit of a waste.

After all, Dudunsparce were Pokémon that had potential, despite its goofy appearance.

On paper, it looked like your typical ambush attacker, reliant on its ability to dig quickly to close the distance to take down opponents. Yet what set it apart from its other ambusher counterparts was that it possessed significant bulk, making it less frail than what you would usually expect from ambushers. Not only that, but Dudunsparce also had a plethora of versatile supporting moves, such as Glare, Yawn, and Baton Pass, that could either cripple an opponent or pass on helpful buffs. Its unique move, Hyper Drill, also pierced through Protect, which was very useful.

Despite all of the above, I already had Wraith, who more than fulfilled this role for me. And with Winston just having joined the team, I didn't really think I wanted to take on an additional Pokémon right this moment. It just didn't feel right.

But for Whitney – now that was a different story. The more I thought about it, the more I realised that Dudunsparce would be a pretty nice addition to her team. None of her team could be considered 'ambush attackers', and Dudunsparce would fit in quite well to patch up that hole.

Unaware of my thoughts, Milton shrugged again, "Suit yourself. I'm not as smart as you when it comes to Pokémon. I'm just some humble farmer."

"Don't say that." I denied, "You're a better farmer than my parents. They admit that themselves. You helped out a lot before I went on my journey, I remember." Without my uncle's help, my parents would have serious struggles keeping up financially.

He chuckled and patted me on the shoulder, but didn't seem to believe my words. Oh well.

After that small distraction with the Dudunsparce, I spoke with my uncle about matters regarding the new breeding farm that my parents had brought up before. We went over the logistics of how it would be set up, confirming the costs and potential profit of specific Pokémon we raised, and I particularly wanted to emphasize how our Eevee would be trained to be ready to evolve into Sylveon.

I also answered a few questions about rearing methods, and the training that I wanted to do specifically with the Eevee and Teddieursa. Milton wanted to clarify just how much could be managed out of my hands, and what needed a more 'personal touch'. We didn't want to be scamming anyone – the Pokémon that they would be buying from our breeding farm would have at least spent some time under my attention.

The business discussions went over pretty quickly, and before I left, I headed over to the Dudunsparce one more time, slowly approaching it. Once I did, I made sure to kneel down into the dirt so that I was close to eye-level as possible. I also released Klee to act as my translator and to provide an additional friendly face.

Unsurprisingly, it wasn't frightened off by my sudden appearance – as it was likely used to interacting with farmhands and other humans by now. Instead, it continued to simply spin.

"Hello there." I greeted it softly, trying to grab its attention, "Did you know that you're special?"

Klee studiously translated my words, but it was like speaking to a brick wall for all the response it got. The Dudunsparce completely ignored me, continuing to dig its small little hole as it spun and spun.

I tried again, "Can you hear me? I have something I want to ask you."

I didn't get a response once again. The Dudunsparce was lost in its own little world, where all that mattered was drilling holes in the ground. The thing was – it wasn't even digging anywhere. It was just drilling holes in the dirt, and once it dug down a small ways, it would resurface, fill in the hole, and dig another one. This process repeatedly endlessly, and I couldn't tell if it was bored or if it had found the meaning of life itself.

Unfortunately, after a few more failed attempts to catch its attention, my patience had run thin. So instead of trying to communicate verbally, I just took out a Pokéball and placed it in front of its face.

Finally, that caught its attention as it stopped its spinning and turned to look at me.

Deciding that being gentle wasn't the way to go, I spoke as bluntly as possible, "You're special. I want you to be trained by my sister. She's an excellent Pokémon trainer. You will become strong. Do you agree?"

Despite my bluntness, it just blinked unresponsively at my words, not showing any sign that it registered it at all. However, before I was about to give it up as a lost cause, it began to spin once again as it slowly headbutted the Pokéball.

…It missed, but I got the message and proceeded to capture it.

As the Dudunsparce disappeared into the Pokéball, Klee and I shared similar looks of bewilderment. That was probably the strangest interaction with a Pokémon I've ever had.

Still, I wanted to make sure that Dudunsparce was actually happy as a trainer Pokémon, and that it didn't just randomly headbutt the Pokéball by accident, so I sent him out again to check.

Klee spoke to it, and eventually she got a lethargic word of consent from the Dudunsparce, who did actually want to be a trainer's Pokémon. It was just lazy, but it was happy to become stronger – only so that it could dig more holes.

Well, I guess that every Pokémon had its own motivations. I was starting to doubt my original intention to gift this to Whitney – if only because this was starting to seem like less of a gift and more of a headache. It was going to take a while for anyone to break through this Dudunsparce's love for digging holes.

Still, I trusted that Whitney would appreciate having another powerful member of her team, and I knew she had the patience and exuberance to break through this Dudunsparce's weird habits. Dudunsparce would find a home with her, I knew. I looked forward to see how much it would grow.

Therefore, I couldn't wait to see the look on her face as I dropped this off for her. After all, it was a brother's duty to laugh at their sister's expense.

Things happened pretty quickly after I found and caught Dudunsparce. Firstly, Lance had informed me that both Hoenn and Sinnoh had also approved of the creation of the Regional Union. This meant that the opening ceremony for the Regional Union was going to be hosted in the Sevii Islands, and that I needed to be there.

Not only that, but he also confirmed that a proper opening ceremony for the Circuit had been scheduled. All this would take place in Pewter, which should make Brock very happy. I wondered if he was scrambling to make preparations as we speak.

The next morning, I called ahead and quickly made my way to Pallet Town to pay Professor Oak a visit. He had been excited when he heard that I had likely stumbled into a Dunsparce evolution, and he wanted to take a look at it right away.

It didn't take me long to be ushered into his office.

"Good morning, John." He greeted me a little hurriedly, "Apologies for being a little rushed. With the Circuit starting up I have a few starter Pokémon I'm trying to get a handle of before I gift them to new trainers. Well, I say a 'few', but it's actually quite a lot of them."

"You're still giving them out, even this late?" I asked.

"Well of course we are! Can't deny a new trainer their starter if they are looking for one!" He exclaimed, "Even if they were to come late, I'd still try to get them a starter. It's our duty."

He shook his head, "But enough about that. Let's take a look at this new Dunsparce evolution."

Nodding, I released Dudunsparce into his lab. The Normal type gave a brief glance at its unfamiliar surroundings, before he began to spin on the ground again and immediately flinched in shock when the ground below it wasn't dirt. It took a moment to curiously inspect this 'foreign material', before promptly discarding the thought from its mind and just started digging away.

Sorry, Oak. You were going to have a new hole in your floor after this.

"…Why are you showing me a Dunsparce—wait a minute." Oak crouched down to get a better look, "Ah. I see what you mean. That's…odd. I don't think I've seen this before. Dunsparce don't usually have 2 middle segments, but this does."

"It's more than an unusually long Dunsparce." I added, "I believe this is a new evolution. One that we haven't seen before, even if it's not very obvious. Look at the coloration and the extra sharpness on its tail. That's different from usual Dunsparce."

"My instincts agree." He nodded, "If it was just longer, then I wouldn't have thought that this might be a different Pokémon. But the extra segment is unusual, and you're right about the tail. Hmmm…"

Oak paused as he continued to observe Dudunsparce, "…Now that I think of it, this probably isn't the first of its kind. There's probably tons of this 'evolved' Dunsparce out there in the wild, but they just haven't been noticed because of how similar this looks to a regular Dunsparce. Furthermore, Dunsparce as a Pokémon aren't used by trainers that often, and are quite rare Pokémon. So there were probably many cases where someone has stumbled into this evolved Dunsparce in the wild, only to dismiss it as being nothing special as it looks practically the same to a normal Dunsparce."

I nodded understandingly, agreeing with his point. Just like my uncle had done, most people would have just overlooked the Dudunsparce and thought nothing of it. If I hadn't coincidentally stumbled across it with my metaknowledge knowledge, the fact that Dunsparce even had an evolution would have stayed completely unnoticed for who knows how long.

Oak then let out a chuckle, "Well I suppose it's a stroke of good fortune that we had a Normal specialist stumble across this. Given your expertise, you must have been very familiar with a Dunsparce to identify the discrepancies out of the blue like that."

I just smiled at the compliment.

"Anyways, I might as well confirm this." Oak gestured to a nearby machine, "Let's get your new Pokémon strapped in. We'll run some tests to prove your theory."

Unfortunately, Dudunsparce proved…unwilling to be strapped into the machine, as it just wanted to spin and dig, but Oak wasn't having any of that, so he recruited his Alakazam to help restrain Dudunsparce with its Psychic powers so that it could sit still and be scanned.

As the scanning began, my eyes kept unconsciously darting towards Alakazam as I felt the power radiating out from it. It was another reminder that Oak had only 'retired' on paper, as the Alakazam that was standing next to me more than matched the one that I remembered Lucian sending out – and that was supposed to be the second most powerful Pokémon on his team.

Retirement my ass. This man could still beat up most of the Elite Four if he wanted to.

My musings aside, the scans didn't take long to complete, confirming my 'theory' to Oak.

"Well…yes, the readings do prove it." Oak murmured as he read the results, "Your new Pokémon here is far above the readings we would normally get from a typical Dunsparce. It's far more powerful; too much so for a regular Dunsparce to be able to reach. Its Attack especially got a large buff. By the way, did you catch its name?"

"No." I lied, "It wasn't very communicative."

"Yes, I can see that." He chuckled, "But no matter. We can find out it name. Alakazam, if you would?"

Alakazam nodded and stared deeply into Dudunsparce, the Psychic type's eyes glowing with blue energy. After a moment, it turned back to its trainer, as if silently communicating a message to him, and both trainer and Pokémon shared a nod.

"So…Dudunsparce is the name." Oak muttered, before letting out a chuckle, "That's actually oddly fitting, considering it looks like a Dunsparce except with an additional segment added to it."

"Yes, very fitting." I agreed.

"So, now we just need to publish it." Oak reiterated, "Leave that with me and I'll make sure your name gets credited. Speaking of which, how did you stumble across this?"

So I gave him a summarised story of how I found Dudunsparce, explaining how it was a huge coincidence that I stumbled into it at all. Oak seemed amused by the story, and promised he would include that in the publication.

With that done, both Oak and I had to leave, so we parted ways there. Checking the time, I immediately made my way to Saffron City to hand over my gift to Whitney and to check up on her.

When I arrived at Saffron City, I noticed that the city was bustling with people – far more so than usual. Not only that, but there were also a lot of young children running around as new stalls were set up in the centre of the city, with Gym Trainers manning the stall as they showed off a few of their Pokémon. Furthermore, a couple of makeshift arenas had been set up in front of the Silph Co. head office as well, with each arena covered in advertising about one of Silph Co's recent products.

Apparently, the Saffron Gym was hosting an event today to get young children hyped about the Circuit. I noted that most of the Gym Trainers weren't doing any actual battling, but rather were teaching the younger children about the uniqueness of Psychic types and demonstrating what they could expect as a Psychic type trainer.

It served as a tutorial for their journey ahead, and to remind everyone that the Gym was more than just an obstacle they had to face. It was also part of the community.

I spotted Whitney speaking with another young trainer and their parents as she had her Farigiraf besides her. It was a little odd to see someone as young as Whitney be stared at with such respect and focus, but that was the nature of Gym Trainers at reputable Gyms. It was a prestigious job.

Not only that, but Whitney was not just any Gym Trainer, but she was one that had discovered an entirely new evolution AND also completed all 8 Gym Badges in her first circuit. And it showed – there were far more people lining up to speak to her compared to the others, barring possibly Sabrina's. I was just proud to see that she seemed so highly regarded.

I approached her quietly, listening as she spoke with a kid.

"…Like I said, Psychic types are one of the better Types to start with." She explained, "Of course, being a Normal type specialist myself, I can't deny that Normal types are probably the easiest to work with. But Psychic types are a powerful second. As you just saw with my Farigiraf, there's a lot that they can do."

"…But I already have my starter Pidgey." The kid mumbled.

"And that's good too." I interrupted, drawing shocked gasps from everyone there, "Pidgey may not be the most powerful of Pokémon, but they're very versatile. They're fast, can hit both physically and specially, and can fly. It's why it was one of my first captures, after all."

"John!" My sister immediately broke her professionalism and ran up to me, "I didn't know you were coming!"

"Sorry for the interruption, but I had a gift for you." I chuckled, causing her eyes to sparkle in curiosity, "Though we can save that for later. I didn't realise the Saffron Gym was hosting an event – I have a couple moments to spare; tell me how I can help out."

In the end, I ended up just hanging out next to Whitney and adding my own thoughts as the two of us answered whatever questions the younger kids had while showing off the occasional Pokémon or two when necessary.

My sister was initially embarrassed to have me hanging around her, which naturally brought a lot of extra attention onto her. But even though she was nervous at first, she quickly got the hang of things and began doing her job as a Gym Trainer, speaking with the crowd and showing off the various Psychic types she had.

Seeing that she was doing so well, I even took a step back and allowed her to do most of the talking. It came to a point where even though many came because they recognised me, they stayed because they were interesting in talking to my sister.

Whitney just had a natural friendliness and easy charm that made people want to listen.

After probably half an hour of this, Whitney finally retired for a short water break, and we moved to a private area away from prying eyes. Despite all the talking she had just done, she had not forgotten about my earlier gift.

She quickly whirled on me, "Bro, what did you want to give me?"

I took out Dudunsparce's Pokéball and released it, "This look familiar?"

But instead of a look of excitement, she stared at me curiously, "Bro…why did you capture the Dunsparce that hangs around uncle's farm? Was it really that special?"

I just grinned knowingly, "Well…its not exactly a Dunsparce. Take a closer look."

She did so, her eyes squinting as she stared at Dudunsparce. Interestingly, there was a hint of recognition in Dudunsparce's eyes as it saw Whitney, but that recognition quickly fled, leaving only its usual lethargic indifference.

"…I don't see anything, John." She commented after a moment, "This looks like a normal Dunsparce to me."

I quickly gave an explanation about how this wasn't a regular Dunsparce, and actually was a Dudunsparce, explaining how Oak and I determined that this was actually an evolved form of Dunsparce. Hearing this, Whitney visibly grew more excited.

"…Despite how it looks, it actually has a lot of potential as a powerful battler." I said to her, "It definitely fits the role of an ambush attacker, filling in one of the gaps in your current team. So I'd think it'd make a great addition for you. However, as you can see…it's got quite the attitude problem. It might take you a while to break through its bad habits."

"Oh, that's fine. I don't mind the challenge." She said as she began gently patting Dudunsparce's head, which actually managed to catch its attention, "I always though this was a cutie. And you're right – its been around the farm long enough. I think it deserves to be trained up, if that's what it wanted."

"Well I'm glad you're happy with it." I smiled, "I know you said you wanted to catch your own Pokémon, but I thought this might be a worthy exception."

"It is." She nodded happily, "I can't wait to test out how good it is in battle."

We ended up chatting for a bit longer before she had to return back to the event. I briefly said hi to Samson and Sabrina before heading off back home to continue training my Pokémon.

However, on the flight back, I received a call from Lance.

"John, nothing to alarm you, but there's been an update in Sinnoh." He said, "The Sinnoh Police have just caught a few stragglers that failed to evacuate with Cyrus and the other terrorists in time, and the results have just come back from the Psychic interrogations."

"What did they find?" I asked, "Any luck about Cyrus?"

"No, sadly not. These were just grunts that were very low on the totem pole." He shook his head, "But we now have confirmation that Cyrus is indeed the leader of these terrorists, who we've discovered that over the years had managed to subvert his own employees into his fanatical way of thinking. For quite some time now, Galactic Company was nothing more than a façade covering up a massive cult in the centre of Sinnoh, dedicated to 'creating utopia'."

"We also learned that there's been a large focus in recent training efforts for these terrorists to focus on large-scale group engagements." He continued, "Which implies that Cyrus has plans for such engagements to happen instead of going for small, but widespread chaos. Lastly, we now know of the name of these terrorists – they've been calling themselves Team Galactic. I guess they're not even going to try to hide their affiliation."

"As of right now, the Sinnoh League will be expanding the manhunt to also include many prominent past employees of Galactic Company, and warnings about Team Galactic and their intentions will be announced shortly to the public." He concluded.

"So any changes about when we get sent over?" I asked.

"I've discussed this with my other Champions, but the short answer is no." He explained, "Long answer, we don't want the public to panic by suddenly accelerating things so much or cancelling things already announced. The Regional Union opening ceremony will proceed as planned, and so will the opening ceremony for each region's respective Circuits. On paper, everything will be business as usual to show the public that everything's under control."

"However, Wallace and I have already sent reinforcements over to Sinnoh. The International Police and other associate units should be arriving in Sinnoh shortly." He said, "But otherwise, once both events are over with – then yes, we plan to send over the Elite Four on a rotational basis to Sinnoh. So be prepared for that."

"We'll be bringing the fight to them soon."

A.N. Dudunsparce is here! Well, it's been here for a while, but now it finally gets revealed to the world! It has a very controversial design, with some liking it and some hating it in equal measure, but I wanted to also highlight how weird its design is for the people in-universe. It's just so similar to a regular Dunsparce that its so easy to overlook. But now it's in Whitney's hands, and I promise that you will one day get to see drilly boy in action.

Furthermore, though the chapter was more focused on slice-of-life stuff, I wanted to demonstrate that things are still happening in Sinnoh with Team Galactic and things are still being prepared by both sides. Hope you enjoyed!

And to anyone who wants to support me, please check out my p atreon at CartecTNN where you can read 8 advanced chapters! Thanks to those who have supported me already!